THE WHITE-EYED POCHARD. 269 
slate colour, leaden, or dusky grey ; the tarsi often with a green- 
ish tinge; the claws and webs dusky to black. 
These were all adults ; the birds of the year are notably 
smaller, and have the irides differently coloured, but never, I 
think, yellow asin the Scaup, the young of which are likely to 
be confounded with females of this species. 
Scully gives the following details of two very young birds :— 
bd. Juv., goth July—Length, 161 ; expanse, 21 ; wing, 5'1; 
fail, 2-40 tarsus. Pals) bill iomm ocdper i755 weight, 15.5 ozs. 
Bill, dusky, livid below ; irides dark brown; legs and feet 
mottled dusky ; claws black. 
9. Juv., 18th July—Length, 15°7; expanse, 262; wing, 
ZOy stat, 2.1 tarsus.ic2 bill from cape, 1) weight, 15:4) ozs. 
Bill black above, grey slaty below; irides brownish grey; legs 
and toes dusky plumbeous ; webs greyish black ; claws black. 
THE PLATE is not happy; we have been unfortunate in the 
particular specimens figured. The male in the foreground was 
not a perfect adult. In the adult male the whole back, scapulars, 
and tertiaries are much darker and more uniformly coloured. 
They area blackish brown with a decided greenish sheen and with 
no pale tippings to any of the feathers. Moreover, the abdomen 
is, in the old male, pure white and unmarked. The adult female 
( the nearer of the two birds in the background) should also 
have the back somewhat darker and more uniform, and the head 
and neck a shade browner and less rufous. The little bird in the 
background fairly enough represents a young bird, but even this 
is somewhat too orange on the breast, and should be a little 
browner. Old females are sometimes quite as white on the 
abdomen as old males. 
The males are immediately distinguishable from every other 
Species) ever Mere) procured ; the females, when mot quite 
mature, are very like the young of the Scaup, which also some- 
times have only a white spot at the chin (in younger birds still the 
throat also is white), and which closely resemble them in plu- 
mage, but which always show some white about the lores where 
these abut on the sides of the upper mandible, have a broad- 
er bill and yellow irides, besides having in birds of like ages 
longer wings. 
